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July 06, 2005
CIOs complain about Open Source
Networkworld publishes an open letter to the Open Source community that lists the points CIOs would like to see improved in Open Source projects (you know, stuff like better documentation, focus on the end user etc.).
The letter shows (unfortunately) just how clueless many CIOs (or the journalists that write this type of thing) still are. If the companies are interested in using Open Source, then they will need to commit to the Open Source project and in so doing - become part of it. If you, dear CIO, want better documentation for the Open Source project - then ask yourself - "what can I do to help the project create better documentation." Appoint someone from your company to get involved and scratch that itch!
This type of complaining (and I hear it nearly every day from one person or the other) shows how Open Source software is still thought of as being "a product" with a vendor you can write complaints too. In the case of most Open Source projects, you might just as well address the letter to yourself.
As a CIO you're part of the community too!
Posted by Matthew at July 6, 2005 02:44 PM
Comments
I'm sorry but I have to say that arguing that "open source is not 'a product'" is very closed-minded and vain. *Any* software that you release - whether it's open source or closed source - is a product. How polished and documented the product is doesn't matter, certain people will want certain things. CIOs are one type of market - they want documentation, for example, because they usually want to take the open-source software and integrate it in their solution, or extend it to do something that they want to do. I definitely agree that they should pitch in, but the reason why companies go with established companies is exactly because there *is* a vendor you can write complaints to. If you want your software to be picked up by the enterprise, you need to package it.
The Mozilla Suite (pre-Mozilla Foundation) was not a product, it was just a bunch of code, used by Netscape/AOL/TimeWarner and turned into a product. Firefox is a product. And what happened to them?
Jason
Posted by: Jason Lustig at July 6, 2005 06:15 PM